Marvel Mania 2: X-Men: Apocalypse

X-Men: Apocalypse (2016)
Starring: James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Oscar Isaac
Directed by: Bryan Singer


It's been a week since I saw X-Men: Apocalypse in theaters and I really wanted to make sure I had my thoughts gathered before I talked about it. This is an X-Men film that was released to mixed reviews. Not overly panned, but not overly praised either. This was news that had been circulating a few weeks before I saw the film and since seeing it I can distinguish what the general impression is. Critics are bashing the film and most fans are saying the film was good. The result is a resounding "meh," so where do I stand being both a critic and a fanboy? While I can see the flaws of X-Men: Apocalypse, I can't help but be entertained with the film experience I had. I'm really enjoying the direction this new series is taking and with some fine tuning, we could be witnessing the definitive X-Men movie series for years to come. But let's go ahead and discuss some of the elements that critics and fans are both loving and hating.

Let's get a con out of the way by discussing probably the most disappointing aspect of the film. Oscar Isaac has been on an incredible roll lately, so anticipation was high when he was cast as Apocalypse. Early photos had people complaining about his appearance but I'd save my judgments until I saw the film. His origin story that opens the film is actually pretty unique, not feeling like anything we've previously seen in the X-Men movies. But once he's in his blue form, we don't really get to learn more about the guy. He just shows up, collects a member of his Four Horsemen, and then moves on to the next scene. This is the tricky issue to have when you have all-powerful beings as the bad guys in the films and I really hope the Marvel Cinematic Universe can learn from this when they finally do Thanos for Infinity War.

Speaking of the Four Horsemen, they aren't developed very well either. If you've seen the trailers, you know the Four Horsemen in this movie are Storm, Angel, Psylocke, and Magneto, but that's all we're pretty much given. They're just in the background, along for the ride, and are only important for action sequences. The big exception, of course, is Magneto. Michael Fassbender is the best thing this series of films have going for them and he's really cemented himself as one of my favorite actors in the modern era. You really feel Magneto's downward spiral in this film and you empathize with him more than ever. His story in this movie is heartbreaking to the point where you don't really blame him for wanting to help in bringing the end of the world.

But someone has to be there to stop the end of the world, and that's where the X-Men come in. The big gimmick for X-Men: Apocalypse is that we'd get to see younger versions of X-Men we had seen in the original trilogy. Tye Sheridan, Sophie Turner, and Kodi Smit-McPhee did great jobs at bringing young versions of Cyclops, Jean Grey, and Nightcrawler to life. These were incarnations that just felt right and they added a great dynamic to the team. With the returning X-Men characters, I liked that some of them were a bit more in the background to let these new characters thrive. Of course we got another show-stealing scene from Quicksilver, but characters like Beast, Havoc, and even Charles Xavier take a backseat numerous times so we can attempt to flesh out these new characters. The only returning character I have an issue with is Jennifer Lawrence as Mystique. She's way too much of a Katniss-type character in this film, isn't in her blue form for very long. (so much for "mutant and proud"), and really phoned in the performance with this one.

There's a lot to enjoy about X-Men: Apocalypse, but I can see where the criticisms are coming from. There is a large amount of setup before we get to the excitement, but it's important because we have so many characters to work with. I'd rather take an hour to get to know all the characters than rush through a movie and not care about the characters. On top of that, we are getting reintroduced to a lot of characters and scenes we've seen before in other X-Men movies, so there's a complaint of the lack of originality that comes with this. I think there's an amount of perspective that must be taken into that. Bryan Singer knows many of us have seen the X-Men movies, particularly the good ones, and recently reset the franchise in Days of Future Past. Because of that, this movie serves as a progression of that story and the introduction to a world we've been familiar with, just from a different point of view. I approve of the amount of fan service that comes with that, so I'll gladly sit through the alternative version of this world I've already been acquainted with. It won't be for everybody, but I was an X-Men fan that was very pleased with what I got from X-Men: Apocalypse.

In the post-credits scene, we see *SPOILERS* that the Essex Corporation has taken some of Wolverine's blood from Alkali Lake and put it in a briefcase. We can assume this is teasing the presence of Mr. Sinister as an upcoming X-Men villain but for what future film will he show up? What is he collecting various mutant blood for? For once, this was a post-credits scene for the X-Men movies that actually does have some open-ended questions heading forward. All we can do is wait and see what fate holds in store for this franchise.


Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Just barely missing in a few key areas, X-Men: Apocalypse still left me having fun. If you're looking for a game-changing comic book film, you may be disappointed. But if you enjoy the X-Men series as a whole and are going to the theater for some summer fun, you'll probably be entertained by this one just fine. Just expect it to be the lesser of the 3 movies we've received in this new series so far.

X-Men: Apocalypse and movie images are copyrighted by 20th Century Fox